Internet Explorer 11 support for WebGL, SPDY3 confirmed

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Internet Explorer 11 is due to arrive later this year along with Windows 8.1, but the new web browser has already been poked and prodded thanks to the Server 2012 R2 preview release. From what’s been shown off so far, it’s clear that Microsoft is still keenly focused on building a standards-compliant browser that competes with the likes of Chrome and Firefox.

Developer Robert McLaws (the same fellow that shared images of the Start Button tweaks) posted a variety of images that detail IE11’s new features for both end users and developers.

WebGL support — which was teased on Microsoft’s Vine account a while back — has indeed landed in IE11. Right now the browser only passes about 73% of Khronos’ WebGL tests, but that could be because this is 1) a preview release and 2) running on Server 2012 R2. IE11’s numbers should be much better by the time Windows 8.1 RTMs.

The latest revision of Google’s SPDY protocol is also supported, something that was hinted at in earlier leaked builds of Windows 8.1. While SPDY tests in April returned negative results, registry keys indicated that Microsoft was working to integrate support in IE11.

McLaws’ screenshots highlight a few other tweaks for users. The SmartScreen filter can now be turned off more easily, as an option has been added to the download manager. There’s also a “flip ahead with page prediction” feature. While not demonstrated, it’s likely that this allows users to continue scrolling to read the next page of multi-page articles in IE11.

Some semantic changes have been made, too: “Add Site to Start Screen” has been switched to “Add Site to Apps” on the gear menu.

We’ll know plenty more about IE11 in the coming days. The Windows 8.1 Preview should be released today at Build, and we’ll be taking a deep dive into it.